The minimum amount of extra money.....

After paying your expenses, what do you think is a comfortable cushion to be left over with per month? For emergencies, spending money, co-pays, etc. Just trying to get a rough idea......

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

$1000/month is our goal...sometimes we hit it and sometimes we don't. But, sometimes we go over..depends on the month.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

right now our rent is so high we have nothing extra left over.

we plan on moving in july, though, so we should be able to save about $500 a month.

ETA: ideally i would love to put between $500 and "$1000 in savings each month but for us right now that's not practical, it's better for us to pay of CC debt than put a ton of $$ into savings.

Message edited 3/25/2008 10:25:26 AM.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Well, we got married in May and this year is bad for us. My DH is doing a clinical internship in order to finish his PhD, so he makes very little money. Next year he will make a lot more so hopefully we will be able to save more.

We still manage to save a couple hundred dollars a month.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

At the moment we are saving approximately $3k a month.

But, shortly it will drop to about $200 a month. Once I become a SAHM and DH takes his promotion which ironically also gives him a pay cut.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

i think approx 2k a month (20k a year)

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

I think that it really depends on your situation...

If you have a house and mortgage payments, I would think that you would be more comfortable having less to save every month than if you were renting and trying to save for a house.

Right now we don't have a lot left at the end of the month - I am a SAHM and our mortgage and taxes are high. However we had anticipated this and had made sure we saved first so that we would have a cushion if we need it.

Can't wait for DH's raise in the spring!

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Anything left over at the end of the month right now is incredible for us. We have been taking from savings every month to make ends meet.

We are praying DH gets a promotion b.c if he doesn't, things will have to change. Just the way it is right now but I know people have it worse...

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Thank you for your replies, ladies......I am trying to figure out how much we need if I wanted to be a SAHM (when and if I ever get PG, which I hope is soon).

Great idea about having the nest egg. Right now, if I quit my job, we'd only have about $250 per month extra and that's cutting it wayyyyy too close.....We have to build up our savings again, we just took a huge chunk of it to buy a car last week (DH's car died).

Thanks again!

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

I think 100 a week per person is enough "spending money." i don't really buy lunch or coffee or stuff like that. I buy groceries, but I don't consider that in the same category. I try to bank 1 and 1/2 paychecks a month and DH takes care of the rest. We have worked out a pretty good system.

Message edited 3/30/2008 8:08:59 PM.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

i think it depends on whether you have kids, own a home, etc.

if you own a home, you need a cushion in the bank in case anything breaks because it's always expensice. same if you have kids because you never know what can happen.

there's no magic number, but if i were to become a SAHM now, i would want at least $1000 extra a month since we own a home. i wouldn't feel comfortable cutting it any closer knowing how things break in a house.

if we rented, that would be another story and i think it's an individual thing

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Our spending money-$600/month
Savings (includes anything we need, clothes, medical, car maintenance)-about $600/month.
We have 2 kids and a house though so it is hard to save.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

i'd love just to be able to pay everything off each month... we spend $1000/month on gas and can't swing it, so it goes on the card and we pay what we can. we each keep $50 cash in our pocket each week. when it runs out, in runs out.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Wow..I thought I was the only one that lived paycheck to paycheck.
Hopefully that will get better soon.

I need to win lotto!!!!!!!

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

I would say once i own a home 1k in the bank every month and no less is my comfort zone

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

I'd say 1K...

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

we rent and have no kids, so our norm per week is $200-sometimes we go over and sometimes we are under by about $50

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

I'm a SAHM and my DH is a salaried employee, but we need his commissions to live, basically. So it varies month to month. Some months we have a good amount, other months, nothing. It probably averages out, and I agree with the above posters, to about $1K every month.

Re: The minimum amount of extra money.....

there's alot of variable, but i would say at least $1500 if you're not including your spending money in your 'bills' (such as groceries, gas, etc...).

And, that number only makes me feel comfortable because it doesn't include the percentage that we have taken out for retirement. Meaning, if we didnt have contributions to 401K's (or a variation of those) and $1500 was ALL we were saving for the future, i would not feel comfortable.